Waterbury evening Democrat., 1887-12-12
LIFE AT HONG KONG.
DINING FOR FOREIGN DEVILS" AT
 ALL HOURS OF THE DAY.

OiNING FOR R fOhEIiN DEVlIS" Al
 ALL HOURS OF THE DAY.
 Everybody Carried About in Chairs or
 Palanquips A Lady Takes in tho
 Sights of the City.
 The European taste is catered to so far as | the food, or chow, as it is always called here, | is concerned. The cooks are all Chinamen, and very excellent cooks, for while they look | with pitying eyes on the foreign devil" who | has the bad taste to prefer roast beef to stew ed dog or fricasseed black cats eyes, they yet 1 roast the beef to g turn and run a French | cordon bleu very closely in the piquancy of their sauces. The curry and rice, which | might almost be called the piece de resist l ance, so regularly does it appear at both tiff l fin and dinner, is, better here, to my taste, l than in India, the land of its birth The con- ailments eaten with the curry constitute its charm.
 My boy, An Cheong, brings to my room every morning when I awaken, coffee, with narrow, crisp strips of buttered toast; break fast proper is served at 9 o'clock tiffin or luncheon at 1, and dinner, which is the event of the day, at 8. As there is nothing to do after dinner-no theatre, no opera, no amuse- ment of any kind-zthe pleasure of dining is prolonged to the latest possible moment, and l do not know more attractive sight than the dining room of the Hong Kong hotel every night from o'clock to Il, or even later. The room is large, brilliantly lighted, filled with small tables ornamented with beautiful flowers and exquisite china The Jumkahs in constant motion keep tho air cool and fresh. Everybody is in evening dress, and every nationality nearly is represented The servants are all dressed precisely alike in long gowns of blue cotton, and wear little black satin skull caps with red button on the crown.
 There are about as many servants as guests and they move nOiSelesSly about with no con- fusion, perfectly impassive, their expression less almond eyes ever on the alert, their long l pigtails dangling behind. It is an evidence | of want of respect for Chinese servant ta | enter your presence with his cue twisted around his head; as unpardonable, for in- stance, as for your butler to present himself l to wait at table without his coat The head | waiter is called "number one boy," and you send for him in all cases of emergency He speaks pigdin English, as does everybody. And nearly all Chlnamen understand it well 1 enough to transact business with foreigners, but in the hotels all servants are provided with note or ''chit' books, and if you cannot make yourself understood you write a "chit," !" 1 which is carried to interpreter in the 1 office. It is astonishing that such an abom- l inable combination and arrangement of words as one finds in pidgin English should have obtained as it has in China. It is so difficult to speak, that is, to speak we'll O., that there places where it is taught.
 FEW JINRIcKsHAs.
 There are horses and carriages in Hong Kong, and comparatively few jinrickshas. l E.yyQr.U h0Sx ic .iaI olo ol,o palanquin slung on long bamboo poles, whic
 rest upon the shoulders of the coolie bearers. A public stand for these chairs is just across the street from the hotel, arranged precisely l as the cab stands are arranged in New York, with this difference, that the moment you emerge from the doorway and raise your finger to signal for chair, not one, but the entire force bears down upon you with such a lush that you are completely engulfed in bamboo poles, chairs and coolies, the latter screaming at the top of their voices: s'Takee my, Missy, takee my,n and they only disperse when you finally fall 'helplessly into the first chair whose coolies succeed in tripping you up by the legs. Sometimes a policeman ap- l pears upon the scene, and then they scatter, followed by the policeman at full tilt, who, if he can, grabs the coolie by his cue and drags him around the block These chair coolies get sixteen cents an hour, and for that price they trot like mad, stopping occasion, ally to patronize a chow stand, but not to rest.
 As the Chinese language is so difficult tc 1 learn, no foreigner pretends to speak it, ex
 cept of course, the missionaries, but every
 body says "chin chin" (how do you dog
 "Chop chop' hurry up), and "man man
 (stop). A little learning is, however, dan
 gerous thing, as was exemplified ill the case of my friend, Miss Jackson, who, the day oi
 her arrival among the heathen, took a chail
 with four bearers to see the sights. The coolies were instructed by the interpreter al the hotel before she set out on this John Gil
 pin expedition las it proved to bel, to takt
 her through the principal streets and bring
 some little time, the coolies trotted raacefull,
 along the Queens road-my friend enjoying
 the novel and fascinating melton of the chair
 and taking in the strange sights
 QU1CKENED THEIR PACE.
 | Finally curio shop attracted her atten
 tlon, and wishing to stop she rapped sharply
 on~the side of the chair and said ''Chop sasSs& her great surprise, the coolie.
 quickened their pace somewhat and prancet
 gayly on. "Chop-chop," she said again witt
 rather more energy than before, and faster
 the bearers trotted. She now became thor
 oughly alarmed, and imagining the coolie | "SIo SOluS GO Uctke Ter to some out Clt
 way place and slay her, she took out hel purse, and holding up a handful of Mexicans , said imploringly, while the tears started tt her eyes "Chop-chopl' "Chop-chop!" Al this the bearers broke into a run, and up hil and down dale, along the queens road
 through the Chinese quarter of the town along the Bund, everywhere, ill fact, thoss
 jealous, breathless coolies tore, bearing theil helpless victim gallantly aloft, and finally
 brought up at the hotel on dead run exactly ,, on the stroke of the hour, their eyes starting , from their heads, tho precipitation stream
 ing from every pore, their pigtails standing , out straight behind. but sustained anC soothed by an unfaltering trust" that ths handful of Mexicans would be theirs. Poor Miss Jackson was clinging desperately to th, , sides of her chair, the incessant and rapit , jolting had knocked her bonnet over one eye , l her hair streamed down her back, blank de spair was depicted on every feature, whils between her sobs she still continued to ejacu F late faintly at intervals: "Chop-chop"- s "Chop."
 f Ordinary mortals have two bearers the l swells have four, and most people find il a | cheaper, as we'll as cleaner and more satis